March 11, 2013

I've had it with FaceBook. I can't control the ads they show people who come to my page, which are invariably for scams that prey on people with diabetes. I'm tired of channeling a steady flow of people with diabetes into the greedy hands of FaceBooks's abusive advertisers.

Even worse, after I had recruited 1700+ people to my FB page, FB stopped showing most of them my updates, telling me I'd have to pay upwards of $100 each time I posted if I wanted the people who had subscribed to my page to see these updates.

FaceBook's belief that they have a right to spam people who like my page with damaging ads while withholding the useful information I was posting from these same subscribers is criminal.

And to add insult to injury, since FB scrolls posts into hiding very fast, much of what I have posted over the past two years has for all practical purposes vanished and is not accessible via search engine, further ensuring that people won't ever see it.

So I will be killing the FaceB ookBlood Sugar 101 page, if that is possible, and posting new material only in places where I control the advertising and where I can be sure that everyone who subscribes will see the feed.

This blog and my web pages are under my control and the blog, unlike FaceBook posts, is fully searchable by Google, which means that hundreds and sometimes even thousands of people get to read the posts I put on the blog, even years after they are made. (Right now the page about Metformin I posted back in 2006 is among the top 3 pages visited on this blog each month, and it still gets a comment or two every week.)

I like having a place to note small bits of Diabetes news that didn't rise to the level of needing a full blog post. That is why I stuck with the FB page even after they started cutting down on who could see the page. So to continue being able to feature news snippets what I've decided to do is this:

Each month I will start a new post here on this blog in which I will post the month's minor news items in the comments section. Visitors are free to comment on these snippets, though I will ask that you keep your comments short and limited to the subject of the latest snippet. Comments that don't follow this guideline will not be made public. I know this will cut down on the number of people who see my posts, but the comments on my FB page make it very clear that very few people who have liked the page have bothered to check out any of the substantive information available on the Blood Sugar 101 web site.

Since FB's format makes it impossible to conduct ongoing discussions in a way where people can easily follow them, the page failed in its goal, which was to help spread the information available on the main site and help people improve their health.

To ensure you get the monthly post and comments, you can subscribe to the blog (or its comments, separately) via a blog reader like The Old Reader or Feedly.

For those of you who wonder why I have been posting so few substantive blog posts of late, the reason is simple. There is very little news that comes up that hasn't already been discussed in an earlier post here on this blog.

There are currently 552 posts on this blog, which you can search using the search box you will find in the right hand column of this page. They discuss just about every topic that comes up in the news, whether it be the worthlessness of rodent research, the problems with the A1c test, or the value of various drugs and surgeries.

So for most new news items, all that is required on my part is a line or two of comment. The substantive discussions on related topics are already available here and life is too short for me to spend many hours of my day rewriting them for people too lazy to look them up!

18
comments:

I am glad that you have made this decision. I have always preferred it to your FB page, and have waited to read things here that you have posted earlier to FB. I still post, or send links to Diabetes Update, simply because you CAN find them using Google.

Jenny, I am so grateful for the time you have put into this blog. I got drug induced diabetes a year and a half ago, after being put on prednisone for 2 months for an allergy. My doctors were totally ignorant, even my endocrinologist. I first went to the ADA, WebMD and all the other official sites to get my blood sugar under control. Using my meter as my guide, I realized your blog has the most trustworthy information and I am so thankful Google search led me to you! A heartfelt THANK YOU!

Jenny, I wanted to thank you for your book and website, which has been a huge help since I was first diagnosed in December. It is now the first place I look for information. The ADA is useless, and there is so much conflicting information out there. Keep up with your wonderful work. I was wondering what happened to the FB page. Everytime they change their format something else BAD happens. I am really sick of the ads that are frequently malicious sites. I am on FB a lot, but I have learned to be a careful clicker.

Many of us are smart about what we click on, but I noticed that many of the people who were coming into my FB page didn't seem as sharp as readers of my blog. So I worried that by giving them something to click on that said to FB "I'm diabetic" I was setting them up to be victimized by the scamsters. I'm much happier now that I've closed down that page.

I never knew that FB can hide important post and asks to pay you money to be them live. This is really not fair. Any way, your idea of blogging is best where you can control your creation. Thanks for all these informative and useful information.

My dislike of FB is growing by the day. When I first noticed my blood sugar was high ( I don"t have health insurance) I read every one of your blog entries and benefited tremendously. Three years have gone by & my sugar is has stabilized with a moderate carb diet. I thank you & still read all of your posts.

Just my opinion. Responding to your concern that people may not find you without using FB. I believe anyone really looking for help will look hard enough to find Blood Sugar 101. I just recently discovered your site and your blog in the last two weeks. What I found to be the greatest quality in all your website and blog, is that you are not like most diabetes help websites. I see straight advice and you back it with research. And I love the way you keep control to prevent scam ads. You are doing a wonderful job. It is sad that our society is all about money and that certian companys claiming that vitamin suppliments and herbal scams, not to mention drug companys, can prey off of people with health problems. It is just a wonderful thought to know people like yourself are here. Thank you again.

Thanks for your kind words. I do what I can about the scam ads, though some do slip through. I can only block the ones I see when I pull up the pages myself or those people inform me about. But I have yet to hear from anyone about a bad ad. People are numbed out to them, I guess.

I totally understand not using FB anymore. But I sure wish you'd make news updates as separate blog posts instead of hidden away as a comment on a blog post. I'm honestly baffled by that. That's got to be the most inefficient means of sharing anything. There is no way to be notified of it. If I read a post of yours how in the world am I to know to go back later and keep rechecking the comments section? Or why would I do that when if you wanted me to read it you'd just share it as a post? There are so many interesting things to read on health related blogs without me needing to remember that one blogger expects me to go back and check the comments on posts periodically in hopes of finding some new info shared. Odd.

The news snippets don't rise to the level of being worthy of a blog post. Right now, Google has a lot of respect for this blog because it is content rich. If I were to post snippets as posts, it might damage that respect and cut way down on the number of people Google sends to this blog.

I post anything important on Twitter (@bloodsugar101). Frankly, there isn't much that is worthy of comment. Just the same old promoting of dangerous drugs (all discussed at length on my main web site already), poorly designed research, and irrelevant rodent studies.

When something truly important comes up, like the recent discovery that the GLP-1 related drugs are causing tumor growth and abnormal beta cell growth, it does get its own post.

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I was diagnosed with diabetes in 1998. Since then I've kept my A1cs in the 5.0-6.0% range using the techniques you'll find explained at The main Blood Sugar 101 Web Site, where you'll also find extensive discussion of the peer-reviewed research that backs up the statements you read here.

I've also published two books on related subjects, Blood Sugar 101: What They Don't Tell You About Diabetes, which was an Amazon Diabetes bestseller for 3 years and Diet 101: The Truth About Low Carb Diets.